I predict that this thread will either be very short, mirroring the output of the new journal, or will turn into a UD-thread-esque monster complete with LOLcats if the journal proves to be rich new vein of tard. Middle ground highly unlikely. At this point, I'd have to put my money on option one.

Certainly the incestuous little group they have there. I was amused by Axe's reply to Gauger's paper. i mean, why doesn't he just walk a few steps to her desk and ask her his question? It's obviously all for the show, not the substance.

--------------The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny is alleviated by their lack of consistency. -A. Einstein (H/T, JAD)
If evolution is true, you could not know that it's true because your brain is nothing but chemicals. ?Think about that. -K. Hovind

Has anyone else read any of Abel's papers and concluded, like I have, that1. I am astonished at how such nonsense gets past peer review2. question begging shoiuld not be considered a valid scientific endeavor?

Has anyone else read any of Abel's papers and concluded, like I have, that1. I am astonished at how such nonsense gets past peer review2. question begging shoiuld not be considered a valid scientific endeavor?

Not only that, but when i read a paper full of jargon of the author's own creation,

Quote

“Physicodynamics cannot spontaneously traverse The Cybernetic Cut ”

using circular definitions (like CSI and IC: that which cannot be produced by natural causes) , followed by the challenge "prove me wrong! (but I get to make the rules)":

Quote

A single exception of non trivial, unaided spontaneous optimization of formal function by truly natural process would falsify this null hypothesis.

I can only roll my eyes and shrug.

--------------The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny is alleviated by their lack of consistency. -A. Einstein (H/T, JAD)
If evolution is true, you could not know that it's true because your brain is nothing but chemicals. ?Think about that. -K. Hovind

Anyway, the shiny new ID journal is BIO-Complexity put together by Biologic Institute. The Editorial Board involves the usual suspects (including Gloppy).

All men. Women do the housework, er, copyediting. ;)

That is weird. Why is Gauger isolated like that?

--------------I wouldn't be bothered reading about the selfish gene because it has never been identified. -- Denyse O'Leary, professional moronAgain "how much". I don't think that's a good way to be quantitative.-- gpuccio

32 editors for six articles by a total of 11 authors of which five belong to the editorial team. At the same time five members of the editorial team (underlined) and three authors (Dembski, Meyer, Nelson) are fellows of the Discovery Institute. Quite an endeavor for six articles.

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

32 editors for six articles by a total of 11 authors of which five belong to the editorial team. At the same time five members of the editorial team (underlined) and three authors (Dembski, Meyer, Nelson) are fellows of the Discovery Institute. Quite an endeavor for six articles.

I predict that this thread will either be very short, mirroring the output of the new journal, or will turn into a UD-thread-esque monster complete with LOLcats if the journal proves to be rich new vein of tard. Middle ground highly unlikely. At this point, I'd have to put my money on option one.

I predict that this thread will either be very short, mirroring the output of the new journal, or will turn into a UD-thread-esque monster complete with LOLcats if the journal proves to be rich new vein of tard. Middle ground highly unlikely. At this point, I'd have to put my money on option one.

The difficulty of explaining evolutionary innovation on a scale that would account for the functional diversity of life and its components continues to dog evolutionary theory. Experiments are shedding light on this, but the complexity of the subject calls for other approaches as well. In particular, computational models that capture some aspects of simple life may provide useful proving grounds for ideas about how evolution can or cannot work. The challenge is to find a model ‘world’ simple enough for rapid simulation but not so simple that the real thing of interest has been lost. That challenge is best met with a model world in which real-world problems can be solved, as otherwise the connection with real innovation would be in doubt. Stylus is a previously described model that meets this criterion by being based on one of the most powerful real-world problem-solving tools: written language. Stylus uses a genetic code to translate gene-like sequences into vector sequences that, when processed according to simple geometric rules, form patterns resembling penned strokes. These translation products, called vector proteins, are functionless unless they form legible Chinese characters, in which case they serve the real function of writing. This coupling of artificial genetic causation to the real world of language makes evolutionary experimentation possible in a context where innovation can have a richness of variety and a depth of causal complexity that at least hints at what is needed to explain the complexity of bacterial proteomes. In order for this possibility to be realized, we here provide a complete Stylus genome as an experimental starting point. To construct it we first wrote a concise description of the Stylus algorithm in Chinese. Using that as a proteome specification, we then constructed the Stylus genes to encode it. In this way the Stylus proteome specifies how its encoding genome is decoded, making it analogous to the gene-expression machinery of bacteria. The complete 70,701 base Stylus genome encodes 223 vector proteins with 112 distinct vector domain types, making it more compact than the smallest bacterial genome but with comparable proteomic complexity for its size.

--------------"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

The difficulty of explaining evolutionary innovation on a scale that would account for the functional diversity of life and its components continues to dog evolutionary theory. Experiments are shedding light on this, but the complexity of the subject calls for other approaches as well. In particular, computational models that capture some aspects of simple life may provide useful proving grounds for ideas about how evolution can or cannot work. The challenge is to find a model ‘world’ simple enough for rapid simulation but not so simple that the real thing of interest has been lost. That challenge is best met with a model world in which real-world problems can be solved, as otherwise the connection with real innovation would be in doubt. Stylus is a previously described model that meets this criterion by being based on one of the most powerful real-world problem-solving tools: written language. Stylus uses a genetic code to translate gene-like sequences into vector sequences that, when processed according to simple geometric rules, form patterns resembling penned strokes. These translation products, called vector proteins, are functionless unless they form legible Chinese characters, in which case they serve the real function of writing. This coupling of artificial genetic causation to the real world of language makes evolutionary experimentation possible in a context where innovation can have a richness of variety and a depth of causal complexity that at least hints at what is needed to explain the complexity of bacterial proteomes. In order for this possibility to be realized, we here provide a complete Stylus genome as an experimental starting point. To construct it we first wrote a concise description of the Stylus algorithm in Chinese. Using that as a proteome specification, we then constructed the Stylus genes to encode it. In this way the Stylus proteome specifies how its encoding genome is decoded, making it analogous to the gene-expression machinery of bacteria. The complete 70,701 base Stylus genome encodes 223 vector proteins with 112 distinct vector domain types, making it more compact than the smallest bacterial genome but with comparable proteomic complexity for its size.

I love how the paper's footer lists the citation as "Vol. 2011, Issue 3". As if there is other content besides this.

Each article in the "Journal of Bio-DougAxe-ity" is its own issue, of course.